NC faces uphill task to retain its seat in Jammu

After the alliance partners in Jammu and Kashmir announced their final decision to go it alone in the Assembly polls the second rung leaders of the National Conference in Jammu have become active.

For over five years the National Conference leaders played second fiddle to their alliance partners barring few enjoying perks of power in the alliance govt.

These handful of leaders were seldom seen in the public domain during the past years but now all of a sudden they have resurfaced from all directions and organising mass contact programmes to claim they are equally popular ahead of staking their claim for earning party mandate.

For the time being the party high command has decided to lay their eggs in the old basket and not given any mandate to the new face.

In the absence of new leadership it would be really difficult for the National Conference to make inroads in Jammu region and win the confidence of the electorate.

The party is already facing tough competition in its strong hold of frontier Poonch and Rajouri district and is also not expected to do well in hilly districts of Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban. PDP has made inroads in Poonch and BJP is striving to disturb the Congress partys applecart in the hilly districts.

Omar Abdullah in the last five and half years of rule have himself alienated party cadre and now is expecting them to deliver goods to save the face of the party. It remains to be seen how much vote share National Conference would be able to garner in the coming Assembly polls.